Vail Daily letter: Come hike Sunday

Hikers are invited to come with the Hidden Gems Wilderness Campaign to ascend Mt. Thomas, south of Eagle, on Sunday, Aug. 8.

Mt. Thomas is over 12,000 feet in elevation and is one of the high points on Red Table Mountain above Sylvan Lake. The hike is moderate, nine miles in length, and includes 2,000 feet of elevation gain.

The Mt. Thomas Trail is one of the most iconic in the region. It departs from the top of Crooked Creek Pass and ascends through a verdant bowl of wildflowers with expansive views of Lime Park and the jagged summits of the Holy Cross Wilderness Area. As it gains the ridge, the panorama becomes enormous: from Longs Peak in Rocky Mountain National Park to the distinctive mountains in the Elk Range above Aspen.

The hike up Mt. Thomas is part of a larger series of free hikes of all levels of difficulty led by the Hidden Gems into proposed wilderness areas in Summit, Eagle, and Pitkin counties.

The hikes are a great way to get out into less explored areas of Eagle County and see firsthand many of the areas in the Hidden Gems Wilderness Proposal. With so much public discussion about the Hidden Gems, this is an opportunity to gain a deeper understanding of where the wilderness proposal areas are and what they look like on the ground.

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Other upcoming Hidden Gems hikes in the in the area include a Quandary Peak climb on Aug. 14, a ramble in Acorn Creek near Silverthorne on Aug. 19, and a hike up Ute pass on Aug. 29, again near Silverthorne. We hope to see you on the trail!